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Robert - Las Vegas
Robert was sent to Las Vegas to investigate dark magic that the Giovanni were up to. The local Ventrue realized the Giovanni were up to something magical and reported it to the Tremere to help. However, the balance of power between the Giovanni and the Ventrue in Vegas is very delicate, so the Tremere sent Robert since he’s a human and therefore it wouldn’t look like Camarilla intervention should Robert be captured or discovered. The short of it is that the Giovanni had tracked down an Osiris cult and wiped them out, stealing one of their most potent rituals. Since Osiris was a god of the underworld, the Giovanni knew the ritual would have potent power, and planned an experimental recreation with some of their more powerful necromancers. With a local guide, Robert was able to track down their compound and infiltrate it using his True Magic hoodoo. When he arrived, they were in the process of starting the ritual… IM RP Session Marsh: I would call in an air strike, and throw an infrared grenade to mark the position... err wait. Ok, is Robert basically hiding behind a pillar or something? How many people are here involved in the ritual. Are there any guards, and does Robert have any form of backup? BZero, DM: Yeah, Robert is probably hiding behind a pillar or something. Seven powerful Giovanni necromancers are involved in the ritual (with three other Giovanni family members watching), and they have armed ghoul guards out the wazoo – 2 in the room, and the rest wandering the grounds with Uzis (think Mafia compound). The ritual is about to begin. Does Robert interrupt somehow, or just wait and watch? Marsh: Does Robert have backup? BZero, DM: Backup - Depends. Did you bring the Ventrue guard? Ask anyone for backup? Feel free to ask now what Robert would prolly ask BEFORE invading a Giovanni compound when dark magic is afoot. Marshall(14:50:34): What exactly was Robert tasked to do? Bzero(14:50:54): Investigate what the Giovanni were up to. Marshall(14:51:32): Did the Ventru know what the Giovanni were up to - I.E. the ritual? Bzero(14:51:59): Just that dark magics were afoot. They were worried, but out of their league, which is why they called in the Tremere. The Tremere sent in Robert because they wanted to know what was going on, but didn't want to get caught snooping on non-Camarilla events in a non-Camarilla city (not their jurisdiction) Marshall(14:53:42): What sort of contingency plans did the ventrue have in place, or what sort of Support can Robert expect from both the Ven and the Tremere? Was it expected that this would be a purely recon mission and to get the info back to the tremere asap? Bzero(14:56:35): Like everything, the Trem/Ven will want to take any advantage they can, but CYA if things go badly. Primary recon, but Robert has the freedom to act if he thinks he should -- if he learns they're about to unleash hell on Earth or something, they won't complain if he stops it, but as yet Robert doesn't know what the ritual will do -- just that the Giovanni expect great power from it, and it involves Osiris, so prolly something involving the underworld. Marshall(14:57:19): Does Robert know anything about the Giovanni? Robert is using mind to keep an 'eye' out for anyone behind him. Does he see any sort of book or other object that seems to be giving them direction? He's remembering what happened when he took on 5 vampires at once, so is gong about this more tactically and carefully - given that there are a lot more bodies present. Bzero(15:06:16): The lead mage is casting the ritual out of captured Egyptian scrolls, directly from the hieroglyphs. Prolly the basics... powerful independent clan. Prolly NOT warned they have access to this kind of magic... that's prolly a surprise to the Camarilla. After decades of Gio/Van fighting, they have a truce where Gio runs Vegas and Ven operate but stay out of their business. This would be a breach of that. B) Marshall(15:13:02): So, knowing an all out assault would fail horribly (I doubt these guys are going to be honorable like the sabot were), Are there several scrolls or just one big one? Bzero(15:14:22): Several scroll fragments pieced together to one big one. Looks ancient and delicate. Bzero(OOC): "You fool! When you misspoke the sacred words, you doomed us all!" Marshall(15:14:54): So it's all out there, fully open to 'get the whole picture?" I only have forces 1, not two... damn. Do I have a trem contact or liaison I'm working through I'm supposed to give info to? Bzero(15:22:08): Prolly. We'll say it's Astrid Thomas, since she's kind of an inter-chantry liaison. Marshall(15:22:46): Ok. 1st, using Correspondence and Mind, I'm going to make a 'snapshot' of the scroll and 'send' it to her mind. are the people performing in the ritual holding candles, or otherwise near candles or open flames? Rob's also going to look for anything 'mental' that might help him, aka: Boredom, sleepiness, fidgeting etc coming from the participants. Bzero(15:31:00): I'll check on candles, but there's prolly some anxiety in the casting group that could possibly be exploited. Marshall(15:38:15): I think Rob's going to find the person who looks the most apprehensive/nervous and then further try to gage where his emotions are at. Then I'm going to start pushing thoughts in his head. "What is this going to do?" "Is this ritual going to kill me?" "Are we just pawns so this guy can get all the power?" "We're sacrifices! He's going to kill us!" etc etc, ramping up the emotions like this to get him worked up (Similar to how you can be in a dark house along and your mind starts getting the best of you.) Then, when I think s/he is sufficiently worked up, the final thought "I've got to do something before he kills us all!" I am not going to give specific instructions here. The point is to make the thoughts seem as natural as possible coming from a paranoid perspective - so leaving it up to the person is more natural and less invasive that way. Bzero(15:48:28): No candles. Box of dirt and clay figurines. And blood cakes. mmm... Marshall(15:49:27): Ok. Given the situation then, the above 'mental prodding' seems the best way to go to at least temporally disrupt the ritual. Bzero(15:49:58): nodnod I'll ponder and decide if it works. I mean, the prodding succeeds... just have to figure out how disciplined these guys are. B) Marshall(15:51:53): Ok. Np. Robert is trying to buy time for his Trem liaison to analyze the scroll and figure out what it's trying to do. Bzero(15:52:20): coolcool.. Getting an idea. Marshall(15:52:35): I think he would have notified her that he'd be 'contacting' her this way as well. Bzero(15:52:59): So it's not a surprise? LOL Marshall(OOC): "So I was saying to Nicolai the other day that... holy shit why am I seeing Egyptian hieroglyphs in my head?" Bzero(17:09:43): OK. The guy you're pressuring is definitely stressed, especially as the head mage brings in a man to sacrifice. The victim pleads with the head mage, calling him "Dad," but the mage says only that the man's sacrifice will be remembered. Marshall(17:10:48): Pressing, "If he would kill his own son, why would he stop at me?" Bzero(17:20:17): would Robert try to halt the sacrifice in any other way, or rely on his pushed person to do it? Marshall(17:21:28): He would try to rely on the pushed person to do it, because Robert believes his resources are rather limited at the moment. He can't take on all those people, and he's not sure if he could strike quickly enough to escape. I did have a thought of trying to make the guy doing the ritual not see what he's actually seeing - an illusion of the minds eye if you will, so he'd screw up the ritual. but, he knows enough to know that rituals can be touchy too. You don't want to flub a ritual to summon a minor bad guy and end up calling cthulu because you flubbed a line you know? Marshall(17:24:17): Unless... Robert would know without a doubt that wouldn't be the case here. Bzero(17:24:44): Well, the guy is stressed, but keeps his mouth shut as the main blood mage sacrifices his son, letting his blood soak into the box of Earth while the assistant mages ritualistically dismember his body. Marshall(17:24:51): There is a difference between MY perceptions and what Roberts' actual knowledge of ritual magic is after all. Bzero(17:28:13): Robert's pushing is making his guy nervous, though, so he fucks up his ritual in minor ways, although in fear he covers up the minor flaws. What's the worst that could happen? LOL Marshall(17:29:14): Robert really needs a grenade. And I KNOW I don't have the dots in the right spheres to get one. Bzero(OOC): LOL Marshall(17:30:14): I would need Correspondence 2 and Matter 2 in order to get one. Bzero(17:30:41): It seems likely that rituals that go badly can have very bad reactions. B) Marshall(17:31:18): Ok, I 'connect' to my liaison and tell her the ritual's been started, and ask if she knows what the heck the scroll is. Bzero(17:32:30): As the ritual gets underway, the main mage acts like someone told him something only he can hear, and he glances towards Robert’s hiding place, but seems like he can't pause in what he's doing to do anything about Robert’s presence w/o disrupting the ritual. ;(RP switched to verbal – summary follows) Thru Robert’s mind-link with Astrid she tells him the ritual likely has to do with resurrection, and with it the Giovanni are likely trying to tap into the power Isis used to bring Osiris back from the dead. Robert stressed mage into fucking up ritual… ritual goes kabloo, changes mages into humans, then swallows them up with Set-affiliated demons. Robert reports back to Tremere, who thank him and then send him almost immediately to Hong Kong to retrieve an ancient artifact… XP from Vegas: What has Robert learned? Marshall: Uhh... one shouldn't mess with ancient ritualistic magic of the underworld without researching it a bit.